Monthly Archives: August 2013

John Alex Murphy, The Province: Week 3 has been a breakthrough week for me. When I started my eight-week mindfulness meditation course, I suspected that it would eventually help alleviate my chronic pain. However, I did not expect that help would come as soon as this, and in such a ...

Rituals are an integral part of many kinds of meals. We clink our glasses with cheer before a drink, bow our heads with grace before a meal, and sing hearty renditions of “Happy Birthday” before cutting the cake.
Why? A new study in Psychological Science suggests a simple answer: Rituals make ...

I’ve been feeling quite miserable lately for no apparent reason. Not depressed – or even desperately unhappy – just a little lacking in enthusiasm for life and feeling ‘stuck’ and ‘trapped’ in some indefinable way. I knew that this state of mind, like all others, would eventually pass. Nevertheless, I ...

Research has shown that expressing gratitude can improve our health and happiness, as well as our relationships. But what good is gratitude to someone on the receiving end of a “thank you”?
“If gratitude is actually good for relationships, we should be able to see its effects on the other side ...

We all know that physical health depends on a good diet and exercise. But recent research suggests that it also comes from a regular dose of positive emotions.
Now a new study goes one step further, not only showing that positive emotions improve health but identifying precisely how they have this ...

Empathy can be painful.
Or so suggests a growing body of neuroscientific research. When we witness suffering and distress in others, our natural tendency to empathize can bring us vicarious pain.
Is there a better way of approaching distress in other people? A recent study, published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, suggests ...

Having a bad attitude can kill you.
That’s the upshot of a large body of scientific research which suggests that negative emotions are connected to developing cardiovascular disease.
But can positive emotions actually extend your life? The answer is yes, according to a new study published in the American Journal of ...

Some months ago I was sent a Mayu Bench to try out and review, but somehow the review slipped off of my schedule.
Of the two benches pictured, mine is the tall one on the left. It’s a solid and stable meditation seat, and may be particularly suitable for ...